DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Symbiont evolution and host social structure: bees and nematodes

一个昆虫群落可以作为病原体、共生体和共生体的传播中心，但在一个群体内的传播发生在近亲之间。 如果这种近亲传播比群体间传播更普遍，选择可能有利于社会宿主中比孤立宿主更仁慈的共生体菌株，因为高近亲传播可能会将共生体的适合度与宿主群体的适合度相结合。为了验证这一假设，社会和孤独的汗蜂主机和他们的线虫共生体之间的遗传协方差正在测量代表有效的传输。有效传播是一种衡量群体内与群体间传播的方法，因此提供了一种衡量宿主和共生体适合度耦合的方法。实验室菌落的社会和孤独的主机无论有或没有共生体将被用来衡量感染对主机健身的影响。这项研究还将确定遗传协方差是否可以预测共生体对其宿主的影响。该项目将涉及培训本科生，包括来自代表性不足群体的学生。此外，这项研究与理解从人类到黏菌的各种社会系统中的疾病动力学直接相关。

An insect society can serve as a hub of transmission for pathogens, commensals, and mutualists (symbionts), but transmission within a colony occurs between close relatives. If this consanguineous transmission is much more prevalent than between-colony transmission, selection may favor more benevolent symbiont strains in social hosts in comparison to solitary hosts, because high consanguineous transmission may couple the fitness of the symbiont to that of the host colony. To test this hypothesis, genetic covariances between social and solitary sweat bee hosts and their nematode symbionts are being measured to represent effective transmission. Effective transmission is a measure of within- versus between-colony transmission, and therefore provides a means to measure the coupling of host and symbiont fitnesses. Laboratory colonies of social and solitary hosts either with or without symbionts will be used to measure the impacts of infection on host fitness. This research will also determine if genetic covariances can predict the impact of a symbiont on its host. This project will involve the training undergraduates, including students from underrepresented groups. Additionally, this research has direct relevance to the understanding of disease dynamics in social systems of all kinds, from humans to slime molds.